Republication of: Contributions to the theory of gravitational radiation fields. Exact solutions of the field equations of the general theory of relativity V

Abstract

This is an English translation of a paper by Wolfgang Kundt and Manfred Trümper, first published in 1962 in the proceedings of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz (Germany). The original paper was the last of a five-part series of articles containing the first summary of knowledge about exact solutions of Einstein’s equations found until then. (All the other parts of the series have already been re-published as Golden Oldies.) This fifth contribution summarizes key points of the earlier papers and applies them, in particular results from papers II and IV in the series, in the context of the propagation of gravitational radiation when matter is present. The paper has been selected by the Editors of General Relativity and Gravitation for re-publication in the Golden Oldies series of the journal. This republication is accompanied by an editorial note written by Malcolm A.H. MacCallum and by a brief autobiography of Manfred Trümper.